Engineered wood fiber products with a variety of different surfacing materials find wide application in commercial and residential countertops, bathroom fixtures, store fixtures, trade show displays, flooring and wall panels, furniture and a host of other building material interior components. A typical engineered wood fiber product substrate may be formed of MDF (medium density fiberboard), particle board, or products manufactured from wood fiber products—which can include wood fragments, sawdust, or any other wood parts, with various resins.
MDF is a common wood fiber product material consisting of about 92% wood fiber product and 8% resins. Particleboard is composed of wood fiber product and sawdust. Such products are also used in furniture, shelving, countertop substrates, etc. Surfacing materials may cover the surface of the wood fiber product substrate. The surfacing materials may include laminates, veneers, foils, acrylics, top coated paper, melamine and thermal fused melamine and others, such as some type of coating or paint. These surfacing materials may cover the substrate surface, thereby converting the engineered wood products to a final finished product such as a bookshelf, desk or kitchen countertop. Laminates are synthetic materials typically made up of several layers of multiple sheets of brown paper, a decorative paper and a melamine or plastic-type coating. Of course, there are many other constructions and materials used in the production of laminates. For example, laminates for flooring typically are formed of several layers. The top wear layer is cellulose paper impregnated with clear melamine resins. Below this layer is the decorative layer—a photo or pattern printed on paper and strengthened with resins. The core is usually a durable fiberboard type wood fiber product. Other such products are composed of mainly wood fiber product and wood fiber product recycled and recovered products with resins and/or glues to hold the wood fiber product together.
Finished products with different graphics and patterns, can be used for example, to simulate granite or wood grain structures. These effects may be obtained by manufacturers using laminates with decorative paper with a pattern printed on the paper. This may provide a more interesting effect as compared with a solid color printed paper, and other surfacing materials. An objective of this kind of finishing is to provide more attractive design surfaces to compete with granite and wood, yet offer a significantly reduced price. Whereas granite countertops may cost between $70-$100 a square foot, laminate countertops generally cost between $5-$20 a square foot.
However, a basic problem inherent in patterned laminates is that the patterns or graphics indeed look like they were “painted-on”. Typical materials do not look like a part of the laminate surface or texture. It is often the reaction of consumers that such patterned laminates appear cheap and look cheap. No one is fooled to believe that a paper-patterned wood grain laminate is really wood or a paper-patterned granite laminate is really granite.
Cheaper materials may provide even poorer quality. Top coated papers, for example, may produce a relatively poor quality surface image. Melamine surfacing materials often require the melamine to be glued on both the top and bottom of the wood composite board to insure satisfactory structural integrity. Veneers produce an attractive wood grain appearance, but cause a marked increase in cost of the finished product.
Current design options limit the application and share of the market laminates hold in both the residential and commercial market sectors.